The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) is contemplating a phased commissioning of its major gas project later this year, with the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline landing in Abuja.

The NNPC’s Executive Vice President, Gas, Power and New Energy, Olalekan Ogunleye, disclosed this recently at the 2026 Energy Business Development Forum on the AKK Gas Pipeline Project held at the Government House, Minna, Niger State.

According to a post on its social media handles, the NNPC Ltd quoted Ogunleye as saying that the pipeline had reached Abuja and would be commissioned in phases later in the year, while the Niger State section was expected to be completed before the end of 2026.

“The pipeline has reached Abuja and will be commissioned in phases later in the year, with the Niger State section due for completion before year-end,” Ogunleye said.

READ ALSO: Tinubu Credits Economic Strategists for Stock Market Rebound, Moots Listing NNPC Ltd

The development marks a major milestone in the construction of the project, which is expected to support domestic gas utilisation and boost investment in gas-based industries along its corridor.

The AKK Gas Pipeline is a 40-inch, 614km linear pipeline system running from Ajaokuta in Kogi State to Kano, with associated intermediate and terminal gas facilities and other related equipment to transport natural gas to off-takers.

Last year, the NNPC Ltd announced that the pipeline had successfully crossed the River Niger, raising hopes of completing the project by the fourth quarter of 2025.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Limited, Bayo Ojulari, who announced the milestone in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the 24th Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, said the feat was achieved through effective and innovative contract re-engineering and industry collaboration.

The forum in Minna was organised to showcase the prospects and investment opportunities presented by the AKK project to investors and energy operators.

The event was themed, “Accelerating Domestic Gas Utilisation and Driving the Compressed Natural Gas Revolution along the AKK Corridor.”

Also speaking at the forum, Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, disclosed that the state government had designated an Industrial Development Park within the 1,000-square-kilometre AKK corridor in the state.

He said the park would create opportunities for investments in agro-allied industries, petrochemicals, and fertiliser production.

“The State Government has designated an Industrial Development Park within the 1,000-square-kilometre AKK corridor in the state, opening the route to agro-allied, petrochemical and fertiliser investment opportunities.”

It has come to light that profiteering by major cooking gas offtakers accounted for the recent scarcity and skyrocketing of prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LNG) in Nigeria.

The Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), has disclosed that it sold LNG at N800 per kilogramme to the major offtakers, who turned round to sell to Nigerians at N2,400 per kg, marking up the product by N1,600 during the recent nationwide scarcity.

It said that some of the offtakers were hoarding product at terminals and creating artificial scarcity, a practice that pushed prices far above regulatory benchmarks and inflicted hardship on households across the country.

These facts were shared by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adeleye Falade, at the NLNG Facts & Figures Presentation in Lagos.

“What we found out is that a number of people who take products, they will put it in their terminal, and they are part of those that have created the artificial scarcity that has led to the price increase. When the product was being sold at N2,400 per kg in the market, guess how much they were lifting it from us? It was between N800 and N900 per kg,” Falade stated.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had recommended that after transportation costs, retail prices should not exceed N1,000 to N1,200 per kg.

“So there’s also some distortion that happened on the sales side, which I know the regulators are working on right now to get control of it,” Falade added.

ALSO READ: Shell Pledges Support for Nigeria’s Energy Journey

The NLNG supplies LPG to the Nigerian market through its vessel, Alfred Temile. More than 15 terminal owners offtake the product as middlemen before selling in bulk to gas plant operators and independent petroleum marketers.

The hoarding at terminal level, according to NLNG’s assessment by one of the big four consulting firms, meant product was not getting to retailers fast enough, tightening supply and inflating prices.

In response, NLNG said it has changed its allocation strategy. “So preference for us is not for those kinds of people, but those that can supply directly to the retailers,” Falade said. The new ranked order prioritises offtakers with storage capacity and a proven direct-to-retail network.

Despite the scarcity at retail level, Falade said NLNG did not have a problem around infrastructure or capability to move its product to the market.

“That’s not a limitation for us… We sell all of our products. We actually have more demand than we’re able to sell. Our challenge was not that people were not able to take the product. Every cooking gas that we made, we had buyers,” he said.

He acknowledged industry-wide infrastructure deficits but said they have not reached the point of stranding NLNG’s output. “There is an infrastructure deficit, but it hasn’t played itself to the point where we become stranded with the product that we have made. No, we haven’t seen it to that extent.”

Annual LPG consumption in Nigeria has grown to 1.8 million tons in 2026 from 1.5 million tons in 2023, underscoring rising dependence on cooking gas as households shift away from firewood and kerosene.

To ease pressure on prices, NLNG said the completion of Train 7 will be the immediate game-changer. The $5 billion project is progressing at Bonny Island in Rivers State with about 16,000 people working daily.

The completion of the Train 7 is going to increase the company’s LNG capacity by 35 per centIt, taking it from 22 MTPA to 30 MTPA. Aside from LNG, the project will also increase NLNG’s LPG production by 50 percent.

Last year NLNG supplied 500,000 tons of LPG to the domestic market. With Train 7 on stream, an additional 250,000 tons will be added annually, taking the total annual supply to 750,000 tons,” the CEO said.

The extra volume is expected to improve availability and moderate the price volatility that has plagued the market in recent months.

Falade said NMDPRA is already working to rein in the LPG market distortion with introduction of NLNG’s ranked offtaker system that is also designed to cut out middlemen who warehouse product instead of distributing it.

Beyond LPG, NLNG said it is fast-tracking a 1.1 MTPA domestic LNG supply project targeted at industries and transport.

The company had in June 2021 announced its plan to begin supplying LNG to the domestic market with an initial 1.1 million metric tons from July 2022. The company went ahead to sign an offtake agreement with three companies including However, that project has been stalled.

Falade said the project remained on course. “We do have a project already working around the domestic LNG supply… It hasn’t changed from the 1.1 MTPA that was declared at that point in time. We are behind on schedule, but we’re still working on it,” Falade said.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has pushed back against criticism of the 2025 oil and gas licensing round.

The Commission argued that reports that portrayed the award of oil blocks as politically influenced distorted a process it described as transparent, competitive and technically driven.

Speaking recently in Lagos at the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Council Executive Masterclass on Energy Journalism at the weekend, the Commission Chief Executive (CCE), Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, represented by Mr. Dr. Amba Ndoma Egba, Deputy Director, Acreage Administration, said some media reports failed to reflect the technical and commercial rigour behind the exercise.

“Others, regrettably, reduced a rigorous and competitive technical process to political speculation and unsubstantiated headlines,”.

ALSO READ: Pinnacle Convenes 2026 Vendors’ Forum

In what appeared to be a direct response to public debate surrounding the recently concluded bid round, the Commission said some reports had unfairly reduced a rigorous regulatory exercise to political speculation, warning that such narratives could weaken investor confidence in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum industry.

She warned that inaccurate reporting could widen the gap between regulatory processes and public understanding of the petroleum industry.

The CCE said the licensing round attracted significant global interest, with 50 blocks offered across onshore, offshore, deepwater and frontier basins.

She explained that, after prequalification, 196 applicants advanced to the technical and commercial stages, while 143 companies submitted 200 bids covering 37 assets before the process culminated in the commercial bid conference held on July 21.

The defence comes days after the announcement of winners in the licensing round, which has drawn scrutiny from industry watchers and commentators. NUPRC said the exercise was designed to meet global standards of transparency and competitiveness and formed part of its broader effort to position Nigeria as an investment-friendly upstream jurisdiction.

Beyond the licensing round, the Commission used the forum to announce a more aggressive transparency strategy. It said it would hold regular technical engagements with energy editors and correspondents and continue publishing oil production data, acreage status, rig disposition and operational performance reports on its website.

“If you do not understand our methodology, you cannot accurately report our outcomes. And if you cannot accurately report our outcomes, the public cannot hold us accountable,” Eyesan said.

NUPRC argued that many controversies surrounding the oil sector stem from poor understanding of technical concepts such as reserve classifications, licensing categories and field development obligations.

The Commission urged journalists covering the industry to seek technical clarification before publishing reports on reserves, production or asset awards. Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of SPE Nigeria Council, Mr.Francis Nwaochei, said the Masterclass themed: “Engineering the Narrative: Why Technical Knowledge Matters in Energy Journalism” speaks directly to the role that credible journalism plays in shaping public understanding of Nigeria’s energy industry.

“The stories that appear in our newspapers, on television, online platforms and across social media influence public perception, investor confidence and even policy conversations. That is why accuracy matters,”.

He explained that Nigeria’s energy industry is evolving rapidly, hence today’s conversations extend beyond crude oil production but include gas development, energy security, carbon management, digital technologies, local content, infrastructure development, financing, regulatory reforms and the transition to a lower-carbon future.

He argued that, as the industry becomes more complex, reporting on it also requires greater depth and context.

“This Masterclass is not about turning journalists into petroleum engineers. That is not our expectation. Rather, our goal is to inspire you to become even more effective energy journalists by developing the confidence to ask the right questions, conduct due diligence and present accurate, balanced and well-researched reports,”.